Commissioner for Standards

Baroness Manningham-Buller Excerpts

Wednesday 12th February 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Manningham-Buller]

That this House approves the appointment of Margaret Obi as a House of Lords Commissioner for Standards for a period of five years.

[Baroness Manningham-Buller (CB)]

My Lords, the Motion invites the House to approve the appointment of Margaret Obi as a Commissioner for Standards for a non-renewable term of five years. Ms Obi will work alongside the existing commissioner, Martin Jelley, whose term will end in July 2026.

I remind the House that the office of the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards was created in 2009. The House decided in 2021 to appoint two commissioners, to divide the role between them. In the view of the committee, the last four years have demonstrated that having two commissioners has built greater capacity and resilience into our system.

A vacancy arose because the previous commissioner, Akbar Khan, stood down in September 2024 on his appointment as a judge of the Upper Tribunal of the immigration and asylum chamber. I would like to thank him for his work as commissioner.

As chair of the Conduct Committee, I chaired the panel for this recruitment. I was supported by two noble Lord, the noble Baroness, Lady Mallalieu, from the Government Benches, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Garnier, from the Opposition, and by two external members of the Conduct Committee, Cindy Butts and Andrea Coomber. We were very much helped by the noble Lord, Lord Scriven; although he could not be involved with the interviews, he was involved in the whole process.

After an open process, we unanimously agreed that Ms Obi would bring the experience and skill that the role needed and should be appointed. A short biography giving further details of her experience in a range of judicial, regulatory and investigatory roles is available in the Printed Paper Office and on the parliamentary website. I beg to move.

Motion agreed.